GCU introduced a new blended learning format to a number of undergraduate classes during summer 2014 as a way to reinvent 100-level classes to be more engaging and valuable as core degree courses. The format, which combines the best elements of online and traditional classes, has already impacted student learning.

By Janie Magruder GCU Today Magazine There are no tiny patients born too early for their own good, no new mothers wrung out with worry over their babies’ ragged breaths, no nurses rushing to respond to jarring alarms in Marla Booker’s new workplace. In fact, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Sidra Medical and Research Center, which Booker has been hired to help staff and run, isn’t open yet. But there’s still plenty for this Grand Canyon University alumna to do in a place that could not be more different from where she spent her entire adult life, as a wife, mother, nurse and hospital administrator. In November, not 30 days after walking across the GCU Arena stage to accept her diploma for a master’s degree in health care administration, Booker moved 6,600 miles from her longtime home in Connecticut to Qatar, a small, oil-rich nation on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Ending a 25-year career at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, she is helping create a state-of-the-art hospital for women and children in the capital city of Doha. It was a bold move for anyone but especially for someone who, at age 47, never had traveled […]

Photos by Darryl Webb GCU News Bureau GCU welcomed online students and faculty to campus Saturday with a reception and free tickets to the men’s basketball game. In rolling out the purple carpet, the University also feted three exemplary students who gave testimonials during the reception, and it awarded scholarships to the children of one of the students, Jessica Smith.

Eric Gabriel, one of the online learners who will be honored on campus this weekend, has turned losing his right leg into an opportunity to show others how to attack such a life-changing event. He has done so with humor and no-quit attitude, as demonstrated in this GCU Today story.

Grand Canyon University online professor John Steele was selected as an online professor to be recognized during Online Student Night along with three online students. Steele has developed a way to improve GCU online education as part of the CIRT Advisory Board and the Plagiarism Task Force. He is praised by peers and students for his intrinsic dedication to student success.

GCU nursing student Jessica Smith endured more heartache last year than many of us will experience in a lifetime, never mind the challenges she’s faced since graduating from high school. And yet Smith, who with two other students and a faculty member will be honored by GCU at Online Student Night Saturday, said her blessings and the miraculous kindnesses of others are too many to count.

Gary Skinner didn’t jump right into college out of high school. He created his own businesses and fought through some serious health issues, including one that led him to become blind before finding his way into GCU’s online psychology program. Now, at 63, he is soon to be equipped with a bachelor’s degree that could lead him into a counseling career.

By GCU News Bureau Grand Canyon University will award a $10,000 scholarship to an online student in a drawing during Online Student Night on Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Phoenix campus. GCU is inviting all online students to a 5 p.m. reception at the Antelope Reception Center before the men’s basketball game vs. New Mexico State. Students will have an opportunity to mingle with fellow online learners and meet with the online faculty members, enrollment counselors and student service advisers (SSA) they deal with on a routine basis via computer or telephone. “That will be the best part about this event,” said Brian Mueller, GCU’s CEO/president. “The SSAs and enrollment counselors often become part of these students’ daily lives with their support and encouragement. Those relationships are what set our online experience apart from so many other schools.” All online students and their families will get free admission to the game, and three online students will share their stories of perseverance and determination during the reception and will be recognized during the game: ● Gary Skinner, who is blind, has shown his determination in his quest to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Skinner is on course to graduate this spring and plans to pursue a master’s degree […]

The latest edition of GCU Today Magazine — featuring a comprehensive look at the University’s new plan to strengthen its west Phoenix neighborhood — is available here. The December issue also has a story about GCU nurturing its spiritual-life roots, a feature on the men’s basketball team’s debut on the national sports stage and an article about what a new name and a new dean mean for students in the Colangelo College of Business. Don’t miss our stories about alumni Gustavo Anton’s journey to medical school and Michelle Lara’s road to recovery from a near-fatal accident, plus a profile of online student Komi Lokossou, a broadly smiling goodwill ambassador on GCU’s main campus.

Grand Canyon University public safety officer and online master’s student Komi Lokossou is known around campus for his endearing personality and infectious smile. He overcame two brushes with death and seven years as a refuge before coming to America. He considers GCU the “promise land” and feels called by God to serve others.